Horace Vere, 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury (1565-2 May 1635) was an English nobleman and general who most notably commanded the English expedition sent to the Spanish Netherlands to support the Protestant Dutch Revolt against Catholic Spain from 1597 to 1623.
Biography[]
Horace Vere was born in Crepping Hall, Essex in 1565, the grandson of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford. In 1590, he joined his brothers Robert and Francis in traveling to the Netherlands to fight alongside the Protestant Dutch rebels during the Dutch Revolt and Anglo-Spanish War, and he was wounded during the 1592 assault on Steenwijk and was knighted for his gallantry at the 1596 Capture of Cadiz. In 1597, he temporarily assumed command of the English expedition to the Netherlands in his brothers' absence and helped Maurice of Orange capture Rheinberg, Meurs, Groenlo, Bredevoort, Enschede, Oldenzaal, and Lingen in the eastern Netherlands. He also fought at the Battle of Nieuwpoort, the 1602 Siege of Ostend, and in the 1602 Siege of Grave, assuming command after his brother Francis was wounded in the head. On his brother's retirement, he took his place permanently, and he helped to thwart Ambrosio Spinola's attempted recapture of Sluys in 1604. He was defeated at the 1605 Battle of Mulheim, however, forcing him to return to England. In October 1609, he succeeded his brother as Governor of the Brill, and he captured Julich in 1610. In 1620, King James I of England sent Vere to the Palatinate to head an English expedition in support of his son-in-law Frederick V of Palatinate amid the Thirty Years' War, but he failed to prevent the breakup of the Protestant Union in 1621. The English garrisons in the region became isolated and threatened by the Spanish, and Vere returned empty-handed in 1623. In 1624, he returned to the Hague to support Maurice of Orange's defense of Breda, but Maurice died in 1625, and Vere failed to relieve the city. However, King James created him Baron Vere of Tilbury. In 1632, he captured Maastricht, but his kinsman Robert de Vere, 19th Earl of Oxford was killed in the process. Afterwards, Vere returned to England, and he suffered an apoplectic fit in London and died on 2 May 1635 at the age of 70. His daughter Anne went on to marry Vere's former subordinate Thomas Fairfax in 1637.